Tom Aspinall’s injury-plagued run as the UFC heavyweight champion is finally over.
On Monday morning, the English fan favorite vacated his title after suffering an injury setback in training.
Tom Aspinall‘s lengthy social post ended a 450-day heavyweight title reign with zero defenses.
To mark the monumental occasion, here are five reasons why he’s the unluckiest fighter of all time.
Can you name a fighter with worse luck than Tom Aspinall?
Instant knee injury
Tom Aspinall’s bad luck started during his charge up the UFC heavyweight rankings.
The 33-year-old won five consecutive fights by stoppage before getting matched with Curtis Blaydes.
Aspinall should have gotten the biggest victory of his life, but he ended up suffering his first UFC loss.
Blaydes got his hand raised after Aspinall suffered a catastrophic knee injury 60 seconds into their UFC London main event.
Aspinall’s career was temporarily derailed by the surgery and year of recovery time that followed.
Short-notice title shot with back issue
After one comeback win, Tom Aspinall was offered the chance to fight for UFC gold on short notice.
An interim heavyweight title fight with Sergei Pavlovich was proposed for UFC 295 in November 2023.
Sounds great, right? It would’ve been if Aspinall hadn’t been dealing with a back issue at the time.
A weird spasm left him unable to train during the little time he had to prepare for the Russian KO artist.
Thankfully, Aspinall shook it off before putting Pavlovich to sleep in 69 seconds at Madison Square Garden.
Longest interim champion reign of all time
Tom Aspinall spent the next period of his career chasing a unification fight with Jon Jones.
The 6ft 5in Brit knocked out Curtis Blaydes while he waited for Jones to recover from an injury and fight the corpse of Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November 2024.
Aspinall became the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history while waiting to fight Jones.
588 days passed before Jones vacated his title by announcing his very brief retirement from MMA.
Double eye poked by Ciryl Gane
Ciryl Gane‘s rogue fingers spoiled Tom Aspinall’s first fight as the true UFC heavyweight champion.
The Frenchman poked Aspinall in both eyes before their UFC 321 fight was declared a no-contest.
Despite being the victim of an egregious foul, Aspinall was demonized for ‘quitting’ by a section of fans.
Dana White fanned the flames by claiming Aspinall ‘didn’t want to continue’ during a post-fight press conference.
Surgeries and another setback
Tom Aspinall has undergone multiple surgeries on his eyes since being poked by Ciryl Gane.
After a long recovery period, Aspinall was given the all-clear to start preparing for a comeback.
Sadly, he suffered a setback in training before deciding to vacate the UFC heavyweight title.
“I had previously agreed to a fight date and was back sparring, feeling great and ready to compete when an accident caused further damage to my right eye,” Aspinall said on Monday.
“This means more time away from the sport, and right now, the timing of my return is unclear.
Hopefully, this is the end of Aspinall’s unlucky streak, and we see him back in the Octagon as soon as possible.
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